Honor Among Thieves
by HiddenStories
Summary: Two treasure hunters seek a single artifact, each for his own reasons. When disaster occurs and the two find themselves trapped, they must ban together for any hope of surival and escape.
1. Sand Storms

_**Sand Storm**_

A single cloud of dust arose in the distance as the soft squeal of propulsion systems grew ever louder. Suddenly the dust stopped rising and as it settled a lone figure appeared. He removed the goggles from his head and kicked his wheel less board into the air with his left foot. Once he caught it he locked down to the bracelet on his wrist and pressed a button. A voice was then projected from the speakers in the wristband.

"This is base what is your reason for contact."

"Cut the act Storm," the rider responded agitated, "Just put Wave on."

"Got it Boss," Strom then said and the line went silent for several seconds, soon a new voice began to speak from the bracelet.

"This better be important Jet, I was in the middle of some important work. Why did you try to contact me?"

"Oh, well, I wanted to check in see how your life is going. And maybe you could… TELL ME WHERE I'M SUPPOSED TO BE GOING."

"Fine you little brat. The satellites indicate you are 10 kilometers from the target baring northwest at 15 degrees."

"SPEAK ENGLISH WAVE"

"I'm downloading the information into your communicator now."

"Good I just got it. The idol will be ours within a matter of a few hours."

"Just be careful, this area of the desert is known for sandstorms."

Wave didn't get a chance to finish as Jet cut off the communicator and began riding towards the ruins.

Little did the green hawk know that someone else was moving towards the ruins at the same time he was, from the opposite the direction of course. The only difference was that he was closer.

"Hehe, those ruins are in sight right, soon of its treasures will belong to me, the world's greatest treasure hunter." He finished surveying the land tightened his hat, secured his belt, and curled his tail up and bounced through the opening at the top of the ruins. This figure was none other than Nack the Weasel.

He was lucky to get inside when he did because as soon as the ancient door was tripped and slammed behind him, a huge sandstorm hit. Jet however, was unfortunate enough to be only minutes away from the ruins before the storm hit.

'Blasted Wave she should have told me' he thought as the sand tornado carried him off. Spying a small hole in the side of the ruin he aimed his air board, the Type-J, towards the crack and activated it booster, causing him to crash land inside, and take out a few pieces of pottery in the process.

'Stupid vases, the idol's all I care about.'

He gathered up his equipment and began walking towards the inner sanctum of the ancient site.


	2. Trap Holes

_**Trap Holes**_

"Whew. This ancient city is a beaut," exclaimed Nack. "It seems almost a shame to steal their treasures. Course, all this junk is rubbish. The good stuff is behind that locked door in the center of the city, and from my intelligence reports that stone idol in the inner sanctum of the temple is literally the key."

He began to move towards the site he believed to be the temple, because, hey even the best scouts can be wrong sometimes. Moving steadily as not to cause any tiles of the floor to fall, he made his way towards the large pyramid-shaped building he believed to be the temple. Fortunately for him, he was right. With such a large city that was crumbling at the very moment he ascended the stairs, one would not like to back track.

He stepped through the open arch that was once a door of true magnificence, at least one can imagine by its size and the remaining arches. He began his trek down the hallway and began to lose himself in the grandness of the site, making him less prepared by the moment.

"The desert air really helped preserve this place. Sure some features are starting to crumble and there's a few tiles lose, but still structurally, she's sound. Look at me, ramblin' on like some professor at Central City U."

Chuckling to himself he continued on. A nearly fatal mishap occurred when he took his eye of the floor for one second to look at some wall art, a painting he presumed to be of a forest below some mountains, maybe the tribe's original home he thought, when the floor simply opened up and he fell in, grabbing a spike that he just stuck itself out the wall he just barely hung on for dear life. Swinging back and forth he gained momentum and swung himself out the pit. Picking up his hat that had fallen to the ground when he flung himself into safety, he said to himself, "Looks like I gotta be more careful. I wonder who built this place anyway. These traps look Echidnaish but this city looks too old to be Echidna. This society must've died out centuries before the first 'Chidna city was even thought about."

He dusted off his belt and pressed on, being much more careful mind you. He continued on until he reached the door into the inner sanctum. He felt ecstatic and felt for sure that his luck was beginning to change, and after his last failed treasure hunt into a parallel dimension that resulted in several days of painful burns issued by one angry Blaze the Cat when she caught him trying to bring the Sol Emeralds back to his dimension (clearly we can see where this went), he needed some good luck. It was only moments within his grasp when suddenly, the floor opened into a huge gap over an almost bottomless pit. As he fell he tried pressing the button on his gun belt to auto-pilot his hover bike, The Marvelous Queen, to come in rescue him when he realized that he left it back at his hideout because he was afraid that the desert sand would ruin it. Realizing his hopelessness, he looked up and saw the light slowly fading as the floor moved back into place, awaiting its next victim.

While all of that was happening, Jet had reached the city center. After walking for several minutes through mountains of pottery, he felt it a good time to rest and call Wave and get a schematic of the place. He activated his communicator and after getting through some static, managed to talk to Wave.

"Jet, don't scare me like that. I was about to tell you that this area of the desert is known for sudden sandstorms. When I picked one up on satellite, I thought that you might not make it out."

"Nothing can stop the boss," an eager Storm called out.

"You absolutely right Storm," Jet replied, "Nothing can stop me. The leader of the Babylon Rouges." He then proceeded to laugh his trademark laugh.

"Don't get ahead of yourself yet Jet. You still need to grab that idol, and get this. I was looking over the map of the place and found out something that I'm sure you'd want to know."

Jet, who was laughing this whole time, suddenly stopped and stared at his communicator.

"It turns out that the true treasure room is a large cavern about half the size of the city, and is right underneath it. That idol really functions as a weight mechanism to activate the gears to lift the door up. The door right in the very center is the door to the treasure room."

"Well Wave, it looks like I going to be in here a bit longer than expected. Bring the airship here and meet me by the treasure room door. I going to need the extra muscle to carry everything out." Once again, Storm was speaking into the microphone, "Alright boss, we'll be there. That room is gonna be empty by the time we get through it. Ain't that right boss."

"Sure are Storm, and Wave you sent me a map of this place right."

"Of course I did Jet"

"Then I'm on my way to get that idol."

He turned off his communicator and began moving towards the temple, the same that Nack had entered about ten minutes earlier. He climbed the stairs and went inside. Unlike Nack, he had more experience in treasure hunting and experience told him to test the floors before moving across. He took out a small silver coin and tossed it on the tiles ahead of him, and nothing happened, until he reached the painting of the forest. He tossed the coin and the floor opened up, and the coin fell in. He chuckled to himself thinking, is that the best they could do, and leapt over the gap. Minutes later he reached the door to the inner sanctum, but he didn't rush in. He had a gut feeling that there was a trap somewhere. Then, as if right on cue, the floor opened up under him and he began to fall. He grabbed the Type-J and put on his goggles, setting them to infrared mode, and boarded down to the bottom. Once safe at the bottom he thought about how, at first he criticized Wave for putting all those extra things on his goggles, but now they had saved his life. After his moment of thought he noticed, that it was slightly brighter than he expected. He looked around trying to find a way out when he spied an oh so familiar face sitting on a rock.

"You," he cried angrily at the figure sitting on the rock.

"Well, well. It's been a long time Jet. I never did get a chance to pay you back from trying to hurt The Queen, but burning that pathetic excuse for a balloon you call an airship to the ground was a nice start."

"NACK!"

**Jet has fallen trap to the ancient city's defenses and has meet someone he knows, someone he wishes he could forget. Will he be able to ban together with this old foe for his own sake or will his past with Nack prevent him from getting out alive.**


End file.
